Category Archives: Waking

The recent article Natures Support lead to some further questions and discussion that are worth exploring. Karma is an eastern word that means action. It is energy with a motivator in it. For every action there is an equal reaction, a consequence. Usually, when people are talking about karma, they’re talking consequences. When we resist what is arising in our life, we can prevent the flow of energy from completing. Thus it cycles around again in the future. This is the wheel of karma. If there has been a history of resistance, which is typical, a backlog builds up. This … Continue Reading… →

Recently, I saw an excellent article by John Welwood in Tricycle magazine called The Psychology of Awakening. Too often, awakening and psychological health are seen as different worlds even though they’re closely entwined. “…even among advanced spiritual practitioners, certain islands — unexamined complexes of personal and cultural conditioning, blind spots, or areas of self-deception — may often remain intact within the pure stream of their realization.” This is very true. They can remain unseen until events trigger them. Yet even then, if we see ourselves as separate from our humanity, we may excuse our bad behaviour or blame others. I’ve … Continue Reading… →

The world around us can be perceived through several distinct lenses. Our past experiences certainly are a major influence, not to mention our dominant sense, our culture (group consciousness), our stage of development, and so forth. Through an appropriate spiritual practice that brings transcendence (Samadhi, Turiya), we not only touch into consciousness (presence) but we refine the physiology and our senses of perception. Refinement takes place through purification of the subtle layers of our physiology and a shift in the overall tone or dominant guna we carry. This combination refines our perceptual abilities. Each of us comes into this life … Continue Reading… →

On December 11, I chatted with Jacob Kyle on the Chitheads* podcast from Embodied Philosophy. He suggested we’d chat for about 45 minutes but we went an hour and a half. Even there, we skimmed a lot of the territory he wanted to cover. They list these topics: – Davidya’s continual journey of awakening – 7 stages of consciousness – Awakening inside and outside of a tradition – Chasing experience – “Feeling value” and its role in the process of awakening – Personal and impersonal – changing focus – Ethics and awakening – three folds of the ego – Rising … Continue Reading… →

As most readers know, I started my path through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He’s had a strong influence on my perspective as he brought great clarity to ancient philosophy and enlightenment. Maharishi spent a great deal of time translating the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutra in the 60s and early 70s (they have not published most of it). But it turns out much of Maharishi’s later programs came out of the Yog Vasishtha. The Yog Vasishtha is an ancient text describing the teachings of the sage Vasishtha to prince Rama. It is the core text of the Ramayana, the story … Continue Reading… →

Grace is an important element of the spiritual journey. Around the world, we see grace in one of two ways. The first type of grace is unexpected gifts or unmerited favour of the Divine. Peter Wehner described it as “unconditional love given to the undeserving.” For example, there is no manifest “cause” of awakening. It happens when the Divine gifts it. It is not personally earned but rather is given to move things along in the whole. In that sense, grace isn’t personal. Bono, the lead singer of U2, said “Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, … Continue Reading… →

Last month, Lori Ann Lothian posted an article about her awakening process. In it she described how she recently woke up, then realized she had lost her prior awakening during a 2-year series of difficult events. She’d been living in a kind of dream or memory of being awake but didn’t realize it until she’d woken up again. As is typical of Lori, it is an open, honest, and direct sharing. I agree that some spiritual teachers who consider themselves enlightened have fallen into a similar boat. For example, having to come back to Self to refresh it is … Continue Reading… →

An important point to understand with major openings is the distinction between what is the opening itself and what are its side-effects. Purification and experiences can accompany realizations, energy openings, and related expansions. But those accompaniments fade out. True shifts remain after the side-effects fade. However, before awakening, there isn’t a stable platform of being so openings can be inclined to get overshadowed by the ego’s dynamics. We fall back into the dust and shadow or the energy isn’t stable yet. After awakening is established, new openings don’t fade away. Then, the side-effects fade leaving just the opening. However, there’s … Continue Reading… →

The stages of development in consciousness are not just linear nor are they exclusive. Just like the stages of development studied in psychology, we are prominently in one stage and there is a progression. But we’re not in one box, then the next. For example, one can become an adult and still have unresolved child issues. Typically, it takes over a decade to mature fully into Self Realization. Yet it’s not unusual for other stages to unfold before that. Thus, we can still be clearing old ego self-concepts and contractions when we’re living Unity stage. And I’ve seen people still … Continue Reading… →

About 70 years ago, Abraham Maslow proposed a theory of self-actualization and helped found a new branch of psychology. He suggested that if you meet more basic needs like physical and safety, you can address higher relational and esteem needs. Once you meet most of your needs, you reach a place of self-actualization – of self-acceptance, freshness, equanimity, authenticity, and so forth. Later in life, Maslow saw self-transcendence as a possibility post-self-actualization. Self-transcendence is the primary topic of this website. You’ve probably seen images of his Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow apparently didn’t use his model in this way. Recently, I … Continue Reading… →

Rick Archer and I sat down for a second Buddha at the Gas Pump interview shortly after I arrived in California for the SAND18 Conference. In the first part, I shared updates since the first interview in 2015. But that required an extended preamble to review the prior stages in consciousness so the updates had some context. Then we explored ParaBrahman and how that is activating influences that are supporting and accelerating global awakening. (Update: Changes since the interview are mentioned in comments below. The aspects are waking up in their universal nature now.) If you haven’t already, you can … Continue Reading… →

I can define truth as facts yet facts are items of information or data. How we see that data depends on the perceiver. Similarly, truth can be defined as a proposition or idea that is accepted as true. We might call this shared truth. But again, this is relative to the perceivers. We once considered it true that the world was flat and that the sun revolved around us. In a deeper sense, and the way I use the word here, truth is a “transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.” But even there, what we recognize as truth is relative to … Continue Reading… →